Ecologists searching for an endangered bird native to far northern Australia will employ the same techniques that re-discovered the thought-to-be extinct night parrot.

The Carpentarian grasswren, commonly known as a 'Carpie' was officially declared endangered in 2016 due to the bird's vulnerability to fire events.

The species was first identified in 1912 but bird numbers in the Northern Territory have since crashed with sightings rare and largely unconfirmed.

Birdlife Australia's Graham Harrington said he heard a Carpie while on a recent field trip to China Wall, a 60-kilometre sandstone escarpment between Borroloola in the Northern Territory and Doomadgee on Queensland's western Gulf.

"We got a contact call," Mr Harrington said.

"We couldn't find the bird but it was right on the top of the China Wall and we think if they've survived anywhere in that area, then (it's there)."

Night parrot rediscovery inspires new Carpie research efforts

There are plans to install sound recording equipment along China Wall over summer to establish whether there is Carpie population, a technique that was instrumental in the recent rediscovery of the night parrot in remote Queensland.

Birdlife Australia needs $38,000 to install and recover the equipment by helicopter as well as funding to interpret the recordings.

The Australian Bird Environment Fund (ABEF) has donated $10,000 and hopes a crowdfunding campaign will raise the remainder.

"We hope to show that Carpies are present at China Wall and Limmen National Park so that a burning regime can be designed to protect the birds from wildfire and stimulate them to spread across their former territory," Mr Harrington said.

"Finding a small population of Carpentarian grasswrens will provide a strong incentive to prioritise these areas for improved fire management."

Features

Former treasurer Wayne Swan says that real private sector wages have grown by just 1 per cent under the Abbott and Turnbull governments, which he says equates to only one year of growth under the previous Labor government.